Pages

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The One Million Moms are still at it. In their latest action alert they're targeting Glee again, probably because all of their previous efforts have had such a tremendous impact on the show's success. I don't want to give their ineffective campaign more attention than it deserves, but I found this latest alert to be pretty amusing so I thought I'd share some of my favorite parts.

To sum up their argument, Glee continues to corrupt the children of America and generally contribute to the downfall of our society, mostly by the continued presence of gay characters and storylines but also by the show's bold assertion that some teenagers are sexually active.

GLEE is Not Backing Down So Neither Will OMM

I wonder what exactly would constitute "backing down" for Glee in the Mom's minds. I'm guessing it would involve Kurt, Santana, Blaine, and company getting a group rate on some ex-gay "therapy" while the other characters become born again virgins and decide that from now on the glee club will devote itself entirely to the songs of Amy Grant. I can just see the Emmy nominations piling up.

Ryan Murphy, the creator of "Nip/Tuck," an open homosexual and the producer of "GLEE," is pushing political correctness and his lifestyle choice on teens.

An open homosexual in Hollywood? I've never heard of that. And what is this gay agenda of which you speak, Moms? This is all brand new information.

The music chosen for this show is extremely inappropriate especially for school activities. The choreographed routines are obscene and contain vulgar dancing which they perform for a regional competition. Foul language is used in every episode.

I can practically see one million strands of pearls being clutched all at once.

The writers mock Christianity with a song named "Jesus is a Friend of Mine" sung by competitors at regionals. The scene presented them as being cheesy, uncool and prudish.

As everyone knows, there is no more cruel or painful form of discrimination than being made to feel uncool. Stay strong Moms, and know that one day you will heal.

One of the judges is a liberal nun, and a former exotic dancer. She became a nun because she needed a place to live. Another judge is Kathy Griffin, playing the part of Sarah Palin as a homeschooling mom and tea party candidate. Griffin portrays Palin in a negative light. They also mock Palin and her conservative beliefs by giving her lines to ask the students if they are born in the U.S. and to say homosexual students cannot win the competition because it sends a message to students that gay is okay. A third judge chimes in that two men can get married and raise a family. Then, the announcer for the winner of regionals announces that her husband is verbally abusive, and she has been drinking since noon.

Of course I knew that the Moms were going to hate Kathy Griffin's character. But what's so funny to me is that they really can't fully articulate exactly why they hate her, so they end up essentially saying that they were offended because she accurately portrayed their beliefs. Sure, Griffin's character was over the top, but "gay is not okay" has been the take home message from every single OMM action alert about this show and countless others. So basically they disliked this character because she would totally be a member of their organization if she were a real person. Makes perfect sense.

Similar to most teen shows today, all the characters can talk about is sex. There are homosexual and lesbian couples on the show. These teens share passionate kisses on the mouth several times. The two homosexual boys sing a duet together, and the lesbians can only be friends since one of the girls has a boyfriend too.

Homosexual AND lesbian couples? Well, there goes the neighborhood! Also, I kinda love that they go into such detail about the storylines even when it's not really relevant to what they're complaining about. Come on Moms, we all know you're just closeted fans of the show. You probably download all of the music to make sure you've done thorough research into how inappropriate the songs are. And I'm sure you bought the DVDs too just to check for any obscene or vulgar special features. Just admit that you're Gleeks. Accept it. Embrace it. You'll all feel better and we won't have to read any more of these ridiculous action alerts.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

So I know that Gleehasn't exactly been that consistent lately... sometimes it's all about the characters and storylines; while other times the plot seems almost extraneous. We know that for most of the fans, the show is - and always has been - all about the music. But many of us have also really grown to love these characters.

One thing that hasn't faltered about this season is the way the writers have treated the LGBT themes.

Chris Colfer (Kurt) and Mike O'Malley (Burt, Kurt's dad) have shown us quite a few powerful, touching, and poignant moments all season long; the father-son sex talk from last week's episode was especially sweet... and awkward... just like any father-son sex talk should be. The whole Kurt-Karofsky (Max Adler) bullying storyline was handled rather well.

And now they've taken the "sweet lady kisses" relationship between Santana (Naya Rivera) and Britney (Heather Morris) away from what I originally thought it was going to be ('oh they're just slutty' comic relief and titillation) and into a emotionally moving - and heartbreaking - story of unrequited love and fear. (Points to Rivera for the ability to switch back and forth so easily from bitchy Santana to Santana-with-feelings.)

But this week's episode was really something special. After a few misguided crushes on straight boys, this season Kurt finally was given a gay guy to have a crush on! Yes! Finally an actual love interest for Kurt! But unfortunately, the writers were moving a little too slow on that front - his love was yet again unrequited and he was stuck in the "just friends" zone. When we finally, last night, saw Blaine (Darren Criss) fall in love with Kurt - right before our eyes - we were pretty happy.

But we didn't expect it to go any further... at least anytime soon...

Lilith: I think this is the episode where Kurt and Blaine finally get together.

Jezebel: I have heard people complain that the progress on giving Kurt a love interest has been really slow.

Lilith: I'm sure we won't see any boy-boy kisses for a while though. It'll probably... oh shit, nope! There it is!!! Damn! Go Kurt!

We have to give FOX and the writers a lot of props for this one. Not only was it a real kiss - a big one! - instead of those pathetic bullshit 'pecks' they usually make gay couples do on TV (and it happened more than once, go Kurt!) but they didn't publicize it at all. So many times the networks will overhype the BIG GAY KISS EPISODE for ratings and then it's usually a letdown. Either that or they will totally avoid the kiss, leaving even the most serious of couples stuck only hand-holding and hugging. But Glee totally did it right. They didn't exploit the kiss and they didn't fake it either. It was a great scene - touching and sweet and a little sexy... and long overdue!

Although the original songs (which was really supposed to be the point of this episode, no?) were great - the highlight for me was really Kurt and Blaine. I'm looking forward to seeing their relationship blossom in further episodes.

Sidenote: We also really loved Kathy Griffin's portrayal of Tammy Jean Albertson, a 'Former Tea Party Candidate/Twitterer' and Loretta Devine as Sister Mary Constance, an exotic-dancer-turned-nun. (Also, Bill A. Jones as Rod Remington, 'Gadabout'.) Their conversation during the voting was hilarious...

SisterMaryConstance: But my question is this: That Dalton Academy, is it a gay school, or is it just a school that appears gay?

RodRemington: Could I add a dash of Rod to this lady soup? My hairdresser is a gay, and for fifteen years, he's been with his partner, also a hairdresser. I see no reason why they shouldn't be allowed to marry and raise a family of beautiful wigs.

SisterMaryConstance: I liked the duet the two boys from Dalton sang.

TammyJeanAlbertson: Oh, boys shouldn't do a duet. The last thing we need to do is send a message to children that "Gay is okay." It is not a legitimate lifestyle, and last time I checked, it's not in the Constitution.

If you have seen it then you know what OMM is concerned over. The new commercial for AXE is beyond repulsive! AXE, owned by Unilever, produces men's deodorant, body wash and body spray and has outdone itself in shocking audiences with outrageous ads.

Their newest commercial has angels falling from the sky. After the angels stand up from the jarring fall, they grab their glowing halos and throw them on the pavement which causes them to shatter into small pieces. This happens repeatedly and ends with several angels walking towards a man apparently wearing AXE. The tagline is "Even Angels Will Fall!"

This is degrading and irresponsible for AXE to stoop so low. To mock Christianity is inexcusable!

Here's one of the ads:

Now, I agree with the Moms to the extent that I also find this commercial to be stupid and offensive. I'm so sure that angels would choose to give up everything for some random dude stinking of AXE in the street when they could be chilling out in heaven instead. And of course the angels have to ditch their halos because sexual desire is dirty and shameful and unbecoming of a "holy" creature. But, you know, it's an AXE ad. I'm not expecting art or poetry or creativity or feminism.

What I find interesting about the OMM action alert is that it complains only about the anti-Christian aspect of the ad and totally glosses over the obvious sexism. There's a general reference to the ad being "degrading", but that's it. Apparently "to mock Christianity is inexcusable", but to mock women is not that big of a deal. Since the Moms are supposed to be all about protecting children from negative influences in the media, you'd think they would be concerned about the message that ads like this send to their daughters and sons. Instead this is yet another example of the OMM's selective and often misguided outrage.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Nickelodeon is planning to re-air old favorites from the '90s! Are you guys as excited about this as we are? Yep, they're scheduling a "The '90s Are All That" block of programming (between midnight to 2:00 a.m.) that will include 'classics' such as Clarissa Explains It All, Rugrats, Pete & Pete, All That, Kenan & Kel, and The Amanda Show, starring my love, Amanda Bynes. We are so psyched about this amazing development that we felt it deserved it's own very special "Flashback Friday" blog post!

We first got wind of this idea on the New York website and we have to admit, we got a kick out of some of the comments...

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

These übercriticized celebs are trying to make a comeback. According to our poll, you're behind...

50%: Britney
Britney Spears - She may be "country," but her latest single is really catchy.

34%: Demi
Demi Lovato - Growing up in the spotlight is a bitch. Team Demi!

16%: LiLo
Lindsay Lohan - Messy life aside, she's a talented actress.

Hm. I don't know Cosmo... don't you think it's just a little bit tasteless to turn the personal issues of three troubled young women into a cutesy little game? 50% of readers want Britney Spears to make it! And the rest... what? ...hope she gets committed?

And why do we have to pick just one? Are we not allowed to root for more than one woman at a time? If I root for 'Team Demi' am I basically telling Lindsay to go fuck herself? In Cosmo World, women are always being pitted against one another, but what if we want all three of these young women to reemerge stronger and healthier and happier?